BroStep Synth! [Free Ableton Live Rack #29]

Any decent movement in music comes with its own inevitable backlash. The Beatles came to us at the cost of The Monkees. Nirvana became disenchanted when the people they were originally rebelling against started showing up at their shows yelling "Teen Spirit." And now the DubStep community cries foul about an emerging sub-genre affectionately known as BroStep. Although I've learned a lot from some of its production techniques, DubStep has never really dominated my own personal playlists. So, I did a quick online search for BroStep and found tons of amusing articles and posts, packed with a lot of passionate disdain. Check out this Urban Dictionary entry on BroStep. James Blake had a go at it on Pitchfork. Forums are jumping on the topic. So, basically for my own amusement, I started putting together a synth to emulate some of the characteristic vowel formant and noisy controversy causing bass sounds. I ended up with something I actually like a lot. This weeks Free Weekly Ableton Live Rack is the AfroDJMac BroStep Rack! It wound up getting pretty complicated. It's made using the Operator synth. I got the vowel sounds from racking up the vowel presets in Ableton's EQ Eight. (Check this Ableton Forum Post for my inspiration) This vowel Rack is also included and useful in other situations. I believe that every sound has its time and place, so I'm confident this Ableton Live instrument rack will be useful at some point or another. And, if using it as a bass type sound goes against your own musical values, this rack can be tweaked around into something entirely different. Don't hate it for its name, bro:)

----If you have interesting samples you'd like me to work with, let me know and we can help spread the word about each other :) And, as always, if you create any music using any of the AfroDJMac racks, send it to my Soundcloud and I will post it! ----

AfroDJMac is the work of Brian Funk, a New York-based musician, producer, and Ableton Certified Trainer. He's a writer, podcaster, and curious sound designer who loves to share his knowledge about music production and the creative process.